Assume that a gravitational anomaly in the solar system has shifted afield of asteroids into Earth’s orbit, and the field is now moving directly towards Earth. The asteroid field has a density of ρ (asteroids/volume), and each asteroid has an average mass of m. The asteroid field stretches over a distance d in Earth’s path. Assume that the Earth moves with a velocity of v, the asteroids with u, and that v u. Let R be the radius and M the mass of the Earth. The Earth collides with the asteroid field: v u Show that the slow-down ∆v of the Earth due to the asteroid collisions is given by: ∆v = v 1 − 1 1 + πR2dρ m M
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